Guarlford History Group

Railway Tunnels Under the Malvern Hills

Beginnings

As early as 1846 there had been talk of building
a railway line to link Worcester and Hereford, and eventually the
South Wales coal fields, but it was not until about 1858 that
cooperation between the main players was finally agreed and an act
passed by parliament. The line was a cooperative venture between the
Worcester and Hereford Railway, the Newport Abergavenny &
Hereford Railway and the Old Worse and Worse. These companies
amalgamated in 1860 to form the West Midland Railway and were
absorbed into Great Western in 1863.

Lady Foley lobbied for a route that passed
through Malvern and that necessitated boring a tunnel through the
Malvern Hills between Malvern Wells and Colwall, which has become
locally known as 'The Colwall Tunnel'. The tunnel starts below
King Edwards Road near the Worcestershire golf course and finishes
near Colwall station

The First Tunnel

The contract was awarded to the Railway Builder
Thomas Brassey and his partner Civil Engineer Stephen Ballard of
Colwall; Lidell and Gordon were the chosen engineers. Work in
earnest began about 1856. Progress at both ends was generally
straightforward, progressing at the rate of 10 metres per week,
until the navvies reached some of the hardest rock on earth.
Equipped only with picks, shovels, crowbars and blasting powder,
progress then dropped to a fraction of a metre per day and two
subcontractors went bust. Despite this the two faces met on 21st
July 1860 and the tunnel was officially opened on 12th June 1861.

It is said that circa 1860, Mammoth bones were
found near the tunnel entrance.

Ventilation in the tunnel was poor and by the early 1900s the
continued blast from engine's chimneys had weakened the brick lining
so a decision was taken by the Great Western Railway to build a
larger (single track) tunnel to run alongside the old one; the
ventilation shafts were shared.

During WWII the old tunnel, which had been
closed, was used as a Royal
Navy armaments store.

The Second Tunnel

Amy Neal told us that her father, James Neal of Guarlford, worked on this later tunnel at times knee deep in water.

James Carty, who had emigrated from Barbados in
1908, also worked on the tunnel, and was selected by the Malvern
gang for the 'Shake Hands Ceremony' when the teams, working from
each end, met in the middle (ref 6).

His son, known as Sunshine Carty, played for
the Guarlford football team (ref 7).

The contract was awarded to Wilson, Lovatt
Limited of Wolverhampton and work began in January 1924.

In the intervening years technology had improved;
where the hardest rock was met with, compressed air drills and
extensive blasting operations involving the use of a large quantity
of gelignite were employed.

The new tunnel opened on 2nd August 1926.

Whilst there was an option to re-bore the old
tunnel and introduce two way working, this was never adopted.

The spoil from the tunnel was piled by the side
of the Malvern Wells entrance and later removed to form hardcore for motorways.

A copy of the GWR article referenced below, held
by Colwall Village Society in their archive at the Millennium Room,
Colwall Library, appears to be the only locally surviving account of
the building of the second tunnel; the article was reproduced in the
Malvern Gazette.